A streetcar picks up passengers in downtown Portland, Ore., in this file photo. DON RYAN, AP

SANTA ANA - A politically well-connected company won a streetcar contract worth nearly $5 million this month despite repeated objections by the city executive in charge of the project, records show.

City Council members intervened in the selection process after another company emerged as the clear front-runner, according to interviews and internal memos and e-mails obtained by The Orange County Register.

"This will be perceived as extremely unusual by the consultant community," James Ross, then the director of Public Works, wrote in a memo to the city manager as council members pushed for a more active role. It will, he added, "hurt our ability to attract quality firms to these major transit projects in the future."

The project in question is a centerpiece of the city's long-range plan for the future of downtown. City officials envision a streetcar whisking commuters, residents and shoppers from the Santa Ana train station into downtown - and with them plenty of dollars and development.

The engineering and management firm they hired to design and plan that streetcar line, Cordoba Corp., has a long history of cultivating friends in high places. The Harvard Business School used Cordoba as a case study in the 1990s - a growing company taking on big projects - and noted that its "network of ties with business and political leaders" had not hurt.

In Santa Ana, the company was an early supporter of Mayor Miguel Pulido's political campaigns. It also contributed several thousand dollars to Councilman Carlos Bustamante's failed campaign for a seat on the county Board of Supervisors, and $249 to help elect Councilman David Benavides. Its president, George Pla, serves with Bustamante on the board of the Santa Ana Business Bank.

Pulido and Bustamante abstained from the council vote on the streetcar contract.

Companies that "expect to be selected on the merits of their proposal really don't understand the business," the Harvard case study quoted Pla as saying. "Companies and government clients need to want to work with you."

Cordoba won Santa Ana's $4.85 million streetcar contract even though the city's own panel of experts ranked it last among the three companies that bid for the job. The memos and e-mails obtained by the Register under California's public-records law shed some light on what happened to push Cordoba to the top.

The Register also obtained the initial price estimates that each company submitted, which were not part of the expert panel's review. Those show that the top-rated company, Parsons Brinckerhoff, also had the most-expensive overall proposal, followed by Cordoba and then by the third company, David Evans and Associates.

The city's experts - city managers, a planner, an engineer and a transportation official - found that all three companies were qualified to work on the city's streetcar project. But it gave Parsons the highest ranking, 93.7 percent. David Evans came in second with 77 percent; Cordoba received a score of 72.9 percent.

Shortly afterward, Pulido and Benavides approached City Manager David Ream and suggested that a committee of council members should do its own review of the three teams, Ream said in an interview. He could not remember the city taking such a step before but said: "I would assume we have."

Neither Pulido nor Benavides returned calls seeking comment. In the past, Pulido has said that he was disappointed in the work Parsons did on an earlier phase of the streetcar project, and that Cordoba in particular stepped up to help.

But altering the selection process to include that additional review by council members would "effectively discount" the findings of the expert panel, Ross, the public-works director who would have overseen the project, warned in a memo. He added that it would also "put our staff in the uncomfortable position of trying to credibly rationalize the purpose of this."

"Please try to discourage this additional interview and allow us to proceed to the full Council with our recommendation," Ross, who has since retired, wrote in his memo to the city manager.

Nonetheless, the city called back the three teams for another round of interviews in front of the council's transportation committee, on which both Pulido and Benavides sit. The committee recommended a "hybrid team," which would borrow from the best of the three companies.

Ross drew up a new staffing chart that kept managers from the top-rated company, Parsons, in the lead but made room for a handful of Cordoba officials to help, according to a memo he wrote. He explained that he wanted to "avoid an outcome that would be very difficult for the staff to administer and run the risk of jeopardizing the success of the City's Transit Vision."

He wrote that memo on the last day of March. On April 20, the City Council voted to begin negotiating a contract with Cordoba, but to also include Parsons and David Evans and Associates.

Ream said he had trouble tying down the hybrid team, in part because members of the different companies weren't always available.

Parsons walked away soon afterward. "We cannot, in good conscience, participate on a project team created by a flawed selection process," its vice president, Robert Close, wrote in a letter to the city. "We believe that the integrity of our company is at risk to do so."

The final $4.85 million contract reached the City Council on Aug. 3. It put Cordoba firmly in the lead, and assured Cordoba and its partners 80 percent of the work. It gave David Evans and its partners the remaining 20 percent.

The Council voted 4-0 with little discussion - and with Pulido and Bustamante abstaining -- to approve the contract.

"We were selected because we have a highly qualified team that reflects the vision of the mayor, the City Council and the City of Santa Ana," Pla said. "It's an opportunity to make history here."

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